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I understand you've moved the Win7 boot manager to C successfully. Since I don't see where you tell us whether you want to keep D or not (you need a separate license) or what you want to do with the deleted XP space, I will try to present your options without knowing this most critical information:

If you want to keep D booting and have not been booting it via the BIOS Boot Menu key, but have had a Windows Boot menu to choose it from, then you'll need to install EasyBCD to C to add D from the Add OS menu, since the Windows Boot Menu went away when XP stopped managing the boot.

Typically mistake. When Win7 was installed on disk 1, you did not physically disconnect Disk 0 and Disk 2 . So your bootmgr ended up on disk 0. Now you need partition E because else you would have nothing to boot with.

You could copy the bootmgr to C, but Greg has a cleaner way to fix the problem.

I continue to be puzzled and still need advice. I've never had this PC be multi-boot, no XP and no 32-bit 7, at least not in the boot sequence, no choices just 64-bit 7. When I first installed 7, the 32-bit, I thought I might still want XP so I left it there. Then I realized I wanted 64/7 instead of 32, but I left 32 there in case anything went wrong installing 64. I have licenses for both 32 and 64. But I never use the 32 or XP any more. And, now it's booting as the C/64, no E in the mix as 'System', and it's fine that way.

Even though I only started this question to find out how to backup-image without the E/XP - I thought I'd need to format it and wasn't allowed - now I'm allowed to format E, but I'm not seeing Partition Delete or Create in Disc Mgmt. Aomei Backupper no longer insists on including E as part of a system backup, so that's solvedthank you. But I see now that this is an opportunity to do other more optimizing things. Again, I don't need or want E or D, just C, F and G, but why should the E and D storage go to waste? This leaves me wondering what the best strategy is now.

First of all, a clarification that you don't need separate licenses for 32-bit and 64-bit Win7 as these are interchangeable and can be reinstalled in either bit-version with the same license. So you're free to use the license you thought was for 32-bit on any other PC and in 64 bit if preferred. The rule of thumb is that for 4gb or more RAM use 64 bit, but any less I'd use 32 bit for best performance.

As I said in my first post, your best bet is to move the files on G to the other drive, delete E and G and then use Partition Wizard to Resize or Extend C all the way to the left to enjoy the fastest read speeds by having C on the left-hand side of the drive. You can at the same time move the right hand border or C to the left to make room for a new storage partition on the hard drive on the right hand side of the disk.

Greg, I guess since I am Dense about this partitioning stuff I don't mind seeming Dense about it. So, the questions continue.

Quote: Originally Posted by gregrocker

As I said in my first post, your best bet is to move the files on G to the other drive, delete E and G and then use Partition Wizard to Resize or Extend C all the way to the left to enjoy the fastest read speeds by having C on the left-hand side of the drive. You can at the same time move the right hand border or C to the left to make room for a new storage partition on the hard drive on the right hand side of the disk.

The space on G/Media that's already used is bigger than what I think you must mean by "the other drive", the one with D and F, but if you meant that I don't think you'd say to move the files there. So what Do you mean? Also, I don't 'get' this thing with the 'sides' of the drives. I'd be all for maximizing my C read speeds. I do have one C reading slowness I don't like which is the slow display of 3 new toolbars I've created on my Taskbar. Since these new bars are full of shortcuts (to stuff on G, btw) I've just assumed it was normal for Win7 to be slow on this. Maybe the 'sides' change would improve that? Otherwise my C seems plenty speedy and I wouldn't bother with speeding it up. I don't need a 120mph-capable car when I only drive 80.

I'm pretty sure I know How to do these PW operations (though I just might screw them up). I'm just not clear on Why to do them. For instance, why wouldn't a Format on E and D be just as good as a Delete and Create process?

See, this is why you're an IT Pro/Windows Guru and I am a lowly old man user...

If the issue is that you don't have storage space to move the files off G to delete it and either slide C intact over to the left using Partition Wizard to Resize Partition, or drag C's left border all the way to the left then set its right border where you want it to fit in a new data partition on its right, then you can use the PW Extend feature I linked twice to add the deleted XP to C and/or G, or create a new data partition there.

This is only mentioned because it's always best to have the OS on the left side of the drive to benefit from the fastest reading speeds nearer to where the disk reader parks.

Because we've seen problems with former OS partitions leaving boot code on the drive which can interfere later, I always suggest to delete and then create new partitions during reinstall or repartitioning rather than just formatting the existing partition. It seems to get it cleaner.

You needn't ever apologize for asking questions here. You probably already know more than most people about these issues, and now you know even more and perhaps get to use the coolest tool we have here which has helped thousands of Users do complicated partitioning operations without a single failure. Partition Wizard will show you exactly how your disk looks before you Apply the steps you've taken, so you can always Undo and do over each step until it looks exactly like you want. So take all the time you need before clicking Apply, even asking back here if necessary. I will be flying most of today but check in tonight from Boston.

If the issue is that you don't have storage space to move the files off G to delete it and either slide C intact over to the left using Partition Wizard to Resize Partition, or drag C's left border all the way to the left then set its right border where you want it to fit in a new data partition on its right, then you can use the PW Extend feature I linked twice to add the deleted XP to C and/or G, or create a new data partition there.

This is only mentioned because it's always best to have the OS on the left side of the drive to benefit from the fastest reading speeds nearer to where the disk reader parks.

Because we've seen problems with former OS partitions leaving boot code on the drive which can interfere later, I always suggest to delete and then create new partitions during reinstall or repartitioning rather than just formatting the existing partition. It seems to get it cleaner.

It seems I'm just too dense. I can see maybe Deleting the E/XP and then expanding the G/Media to include that space. Or did I misunderstand? As for 'delete and create' being better/cleaner than format, I see now.

Indeed, your instructions at this point seemed like the simplest solution, at least for E/XP. I decided to retain D/Win7-32 though, until I'm sure I'm not going to lose anything special like registrations. That will take a little more time.

So, I booted on the PW boot CD to delete E then expand G into the space. The UI came up and it properly read my current partitions. But nothing worked, no right-click on E, no menus, no buttons at all would respond. Dead. So I booted a second time, this time with the PW "Safe Boot" (whatever that is). Same result, dead. I have no guess why, but I wonder if I just try running the PW from C if I'd be able to do the E and G actions. Would that be unsafe?

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